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How to Save Public Pensions, No Federal Bailout Needed

It isn’t unprecedented for the feds to spur local pension reform. Kennedy and Reagan both did.

By

Ed Bachrach

July 17, 2016 7:22 p.m. ET

The pensions of states and local governments are, collectively, trillions of dollars in the hole. This debt is crippling budgets and will dump an enormous burden on future generations. Yet state and local politicians have proven that they cannot, or will not, solve the problem. The federal government ought to step in. But how?

Instead of bailing out these pensions, Congress should pass a law allowing states and local governments to reduce promised benefits—something that is now illegal under some states’ statutes or constitutions....